Angelo Badalamenti, Julee Cruise

MUSIC RECORDS

October 5, 1990|By Bill Henderson of The Sentinel Staff

**** Angelo Badalamenti, Soundtrack From Twin Peaks (Warner Bros.); ***** Julee Cruise, Floating Into the Night (Warner Bros.): Twin Peaks season is here and the merchandising has begun. And there's a new soundtrack out that will make rabid Twin Peaks fans crave that hot cup of joe and damn fine pie all week long.

Angelo Badalamenti, along with David Lynch, has written a score that is as haunting as it is beautiful and weird. Even without its visual foreground, the music is so voyeuristic that the soaring synthesizers and etheral vocals of Julee Cruise will take you on trips you can't imagine.

Jazzy tones creep in and out of ''Audrey's Dance,'' creating an air of otherworldiness that exists only in Twin Peaks. It's tres cool.

Throughout the CD, disembodied finger-snapping keeps time for songs while distorted guitars can't quite keep up with the drumming in ''The Bookhouse Boys.''

One of the nice things about this soundtrack is the way it makes you nostalgic for its '50s sensibilities within the Duane Eddy-like guitar playing of Vinnie Bell and Eddie Dixon.

The songs of Twin Peaks toy with the subconscious, like mood music for somnambulists. Are they real or another one of Agent Cooper's dreams? Who knows? They're as much a mystery as who killed Laura Palmer.

Julee Cruise's Floating Into the Night comes complete with obscure lyrics, dreamy instrumentation and lovely vocals. It contains three songs on the Twin Peaks soundtrack as well as seven other Lynch/Badalamenti originals.

In many ways, this is a better recording than the soundtrack because Cruise's voice clarifies the qualities that make the show so appealing. When she sings/whispers, the hair stands up on your neck. Hers is the voice of angels.

From the first notes of ''Floating,'' you realize this is different. (If you can picture Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies on downers, then you get an idea of the dreamlike qualities of Cruise.) During a musical interlude on ''Into the Night,'' she teases as she pleads: ''Why don't you come over to my house? Please.'' When she sings about ''falling, falling, falling in love'' to the tune of the Twin Peaks theme, you can almost see her descending to Earth in slow motion.

''Mysteries of Love'' is taken from the David Lynch film, Blue Velvet. It's a stunning vocal tour de force. Cruise puts an innocent light on all the depravity displayed within the film.

Despite the misty mood of the music, the songs have strong hooks. On ''I Remember,'' Cruise daydreams about a love in her life, when suddenly, the musicians start contradicting her rhythmically. The music then fades into a spiritual tone that washes over everything. We're talking goose bumps as Cruise closes the song perfectly with a light shoo-bop ditty.

Believe it or not, it all fits. Many of the songs are disrupted with tonal mutations that disappear as quickly as they appear. It's straight out of the Frank Zappa school of musical surprises. After a few listens, you begin to understand the connections.

Floating Into the Night is a CD that dances among the shadows and bright lights of our dreams. When it's over, you tell yourself, ''Just a few more minutes.''